September 28th, 2006 11:07 hours CST
Currently listening to: "My Favorite Things" by John Coltrane.
Feeling: excellent

it's done! She's here! No more paperwork for two years! I can't believe it. My parents and I met Yuka, her parents AND Chobi at O'Hare on Wednesday last week and they were all perfectly fine. I was so glad to see Chobi in her little carrier. I'll write a more detailed review of the reception and the events of the weekend sometime next week. But the cats are starting to get along, I love having my wife here and we're already cooking some fantastic meals. We got her Mac mini up and running last night and we also got a kickass Japanese rice cooker that has already paid for itself, basically. I'm a happy guy.

September 18th, 2006 09:16 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Resolution" by Thievery Corporation.
Yuka moves here in: 2 days
Feeling: head cold grrrrrrrrrrrr

I came down with a head cold on Thursday night. The timing really sucks because I have so much to do right now. I managed to clean the living room and bedroom. Got the bathtub done. Got most of the computer area done and also the front hallway. Stella has been a bit freaked out with all the stuff moving around the apartment. I have to do laundry tonight and clean the kitchen and pantry. I'm not looking forward to that last part. Bleh.

I can't believe Yuka will be here the day after tomorrow. ^_^

Despite this head cold, practice was really fun yesterday. We were all pretty goofy. I'm curious to see what the crowd will be like at Subterranean tomorrow night. Snowden seems to be blowing up right now.

September 14th, 2006 09:30 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Mist" by Force of Nature.
Yuka moves here in: 6 days
Feeling: headachey

I went to Arturo's last night to put photos together for a DVD to play during the reception. Things came together really well. It's funny now that he works for Playboy, he's got the magazines just lying about the place.

The cake is gonna look rad.

I have a ton of cleaning to do, starting tonight. I have no plans outside of work tomorrow and practice on Sunday to get in my way. I made a big pot of curry on Monday night, so there's no need for me to go out and get food. :P

I got a new credit card yesterday. Dangerous. I've been looking at HDTV's all morning. (=_=)

September 11th, 2006 10:15 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Age" by Chapterhouse.
Yuka moves here in: 9 days
Feeling: good

9 days. I can't believe it. 9 days and Yuka will finally be here. I meant to do a lot of cleaning around the house this weekend, but I was still recovering from that trip to New York. I whipped up some flyers for the Airiel shows coming up in a few weeks and Chris and I hit Wicker Park and Ukrainian Village.

I redid my pedal board and finally got the TSA working. Chris and I messed with it for a half hour before we found the magic combination to get it to do its thing. Now it's fucking wicked. If I kick in the TSA with the delay and flanger on, it sounds like laser guns being fired. It's awesome.

September 7th, 2006 09:27 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Transistor Radio" by The Helio Sequence.
Yuka moves here in: 13 days
Feeling: full

The shows in New York were great. The ride out there really sucked. I was at work at 8 AM. I grabbed John and Arturo and we went up to the practice space and loaded the cars in record time. We actually left Schaumburg at 7:30. We lost over an hour crawling along on 294. That really sucked. Chris and I were loopy as shit, though. We blasted Billy Idol, Kylie Monogue and even Justin Timberlake. I consumed 2 No Fears and by the time we got to Pennsylvania, it started to rain. Chris and I did a pretty good job of driving as a team. At some point in the morning, before we hit New Jersey, Chris and I bought those horrible Stacker 2: 6 Hour Energy Shot things. Well, apparently the human body can only absorb so much B and B12 because after about 30 minutes, we were both falling asleep. We had Cory and Lisa drive the truck while Chris and I tried to sleep in the van. Naturally, I only slept for maybe 20 minutes. It was enough to get me behind the wheel again, though.

We got to Oliver's place around 2:30. We loaded our gear in and I set up my mattress to try to sleep. John even stretched out next to me. We were all too excited to sleep, though. Oliver showed up and we caught up on stories. We loaded our gear around 5:00 in the pouring rain. It was cold rain, too. The rain kept a lot of the crowd from coming to Sin-E, which was too bad. Still had a good crowd, though. We were pretty tired, even on stage. I got to see my friend Alyssa and she was with her friend Mai, who may be traveling to Japan soon. Rowan was there and some other new faces that I'd only seen online.

By the end of the night we'd decided that the best thing to do was to go home and crash. However, Oliver, being the awesome host that he is, introduced us to the wonderful world of Boar's Head deli sandwiches. Oh my god. It was heaven. Turkey, tomato, lettuce, oil and vinegar, bacon, avocado, sharp cheddar, salt and pepper. Hell YES.

The weather on Sunday ended up being absolutely gorgeous. I ran and told Cory because he and Lisa had wanted to play tennis outdoors. John and Arturo went to meet with Kerry and Jen. Chris decided to stay there and sleep. I met up with Alyssa and her roommate Keren. We had brunch at a neat cafe and then went to Keren's studio for a bit. Alyssa and I got to do a little vintage clothes shopping and just walked around Brooklyn. It was really nice finally being able to hang out with my friend, after knowing her only online since 2001. We talked about real-estate and the difference between Chicago and New York. I think she and Keren may visit Chicago in October for the Ladytron show. I stopped by that deli again and bought 3 sandwiches for the trip home. YEAH.

The show on Sunday night was 10 times better than Saturday. We were rested and the drink tickets for Europa got us ANYTHING at the bar. Naturally Chris and I start rocking the straight whiskey. The club was beautiful. Hand painted and a very cool layout. We met the members of Elika and they were supper nice. I purposely avoided their sound check because I wanted the full show experience. I went with Arturo and Kerry to a Polish deli and got, you guessed it, more Boar's Head goodness. We came back and met several people in front of the club. Nice to see familiar faces. Ted, the DJ, was playing some really great music and it was the perfect way to start the show.

Elika played a wonderful set. Their sound is fantastic and I hope they stay around forever. The club lights and the fog made the whole thing perfect. We played a pretty good, energetic set. It's amazing what a good night's sleep will do to you. We took Elika and my friend Xiomara back to the practice space so we could drop off our gear. We met up with Oliver and then went to a bar called the Levee, which was just a couple blocks away. I walked Xio back to the L train so she could get back home. I guess the trains were closing that night. Several people who came to the show were at this bar, so it was cool to have a pseudo-after party after all. ^_^ I made myself go home around 1 so that I could get some sleep before the long ride home. Luckily the rest of the band came back shortly after I did.

We were all pretty hung over on Monday morning. We managed to load things pretty quickly while Arturo and Cory made a food run for us. Getting out of New York was a breeze. Google Maps did not let us down at all. I was impressed. The weather was wonderful and Chris and I did really well in the truck. He took a nap while I listened to Patton Oswalt to keep myself awake. I was laughing so hard that I had tears streaming down my face. We made regular stops and had a pretty easy time of getting home, despite the van taking a slight detour to Akron, Ohio. It only started raining when we got to Chicago. We made it to the space around midnight and I was in bed by 1:30.

It's nice to know that we can whip up a couple of New York shows in just a few weeks. Thanks to everyone who helped out and came to the shows.

Now that I'm back home, I have a lot to do. Gotta clean and get the rest of my unneeded crap out of the apartment. I need to see just how much space I have in the storage locker in the basement. I don't need those spare tires anymore, so those are going. Gotta find flowers for the reception and also assemble gift bags and such. I decided on the cake. I went to the Bleeding Heart Bakery yesterday and tried one out. It's delicious. Less than 2 weeks and Yuka will finally be here!